Small libraries try to fill tech gap

But demand for access to computers with Internet, software far exceeds services that rural libraries can provide

MAGGIE MENDERSKI of Gatehouse Media Illinois

A yellowing copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” has a much longer life span than the computer used to look up its location in the library.

For decades, American libraries served as a hub of timeless classics and new releases. But as technology has developed, so has the library’s role.

Books still dominate the shelves in libraries throughout the country, but patrons are seeking more than stories. In rural communities, 70.3 percent of libraries reported they are the only place that provides free Internet and computer access to their residents, according to a 2012 report from the Information Policy and Access Center at the University of Maryland - College Park.

Students without computers at home need software to finish up school projects. Grandparents who have never turned on a computer want help tracking down online photos of their out-of-town grandbabies.

Some libraries struggle to keep up. There isn’t funding for a new wave of computers every year. For Laura Carter, director of Auburn Public Library in Sangamon County, there isn’t even money to update them every decade. Some of the computers were purchased in 2002, the same year that the library was built.

“We truly need to have new computers all the time,” Carter said. “We have really good service, but the computers are just old.”

The demand for technology is there, even if the money may not be.

Staffing troubles

Carter tries to keep two librarians on staff during operating hours, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes there’s just one person tasked with checking out books, running programs and helping with technology.

And some people need a lot of help.

As more employers switch to online job applications, Carter said, more people come to the library to look for work. Many of these people have minimal experience with the machines. Phrases like “search bar,” “left click” and “X out of that screen” mean nothing to them. Often they need help launching a search engine or even navigating from screen to screen.

“It’s really difficult because they have no idea how to use computers,” Carter said. “It will take some people literally hours to fill out an application because they’re not used to the computer.”

Bennett Bess, director of Pawnee Public Library in Sangamon County, operates a staff of about a half-dozen part-time employees to help keep the library’s cost down. No one on staff, including Bess, works enough hours to earn benefits. While this has allowed him to, at times, dedicate up to 25 percent of his budget to books, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for computer aid.

“They are spread thinly,” Bess said. “If there are two people in line, and there’s someone over here saying, ‘I’ve never turned a computer on before; can you tell me how to turn a computer on?’ Well, there’s not much time to go over there and teach that.”

For Carter, it’s difficult to keep her staff up to date on the latest software, let alone have to teach it to the public. Her staff members often learn new skills by experimenting.

“We don’t have the money for training and to learn all the new things that people need to know,” Carter said. “We sort of just have to learn things by trial and error.”

Fortunately for Bess and Carter, the majority of their visitors know their way around a computer. Both said their keyboards see the most use from the younger generation wanting to play games or work on school projects.

“It might be that the biggest part of the pie chart is just kids coming in and messing around on the Internet,” Bess said. “But they’re supposed to be able to. They’re kids, and it’s the Internet.”

The problem comes when the library can’t provide the tools needed for those school projects. While many schools leave time to complete these projects during the school day, Carter said it’s not uncommon to have students without computers at home come in for a last-minute project. Carter only has a couple of computers with PowerPoint, which has become as common an assignment format as a standard essay. When those computers are taken, it can mean tears.

“The schools require a lot more of kids,” Carter said. “Not everyone has the money, including us, to supply the kids with exactly what they need.”

Limited access

Grant Fredrickson, director of the Illinois Prairie District Public Library that has six branches in rural Woodford County communities, said the quality of technology available keeps up with demand, but accessibility leaves room for improvement.

The library district cuts costs by limiting the number of hours that each of the library branches operate, but invests in computers and software in the communities where many residents don’t have a home computer.

Spring Bay has the district’s largest public computer bay, with five machines purchased earlier this year and equipped with up-to-date software for a cost of $7,500, Fredrickson said. The branch, however, splits 14 business hours between two week days and Saturday.

In Washburn, scheduled to have all three of its public computers replaced within the next month, the library is open only 12 weekly hours of operation.

The challenge isn’t keeping up with technology in the library, it’s expanding the district’s offerings outside of library hours.

“Basically what we’re trying to do is help people out with the computer when we’re not open in their town,” Fredrickson said.

IPDPL is investing instead in digital offerings, such as the recently completed obituary-birth-marriage index, a project completed by volunteers at the Metamora branch painstakingly transferring microfilmed versions of the Woodford Sentinel and Metamora Herald into a searchable database.

Measures like these and adding e-reader access through the Alliance Digital Media Library and eRead Illinois, an statewide effort funded by the secretary of state through the Illinois Library, are expanding the small libraries beyond the confines of their branch locations.

They’re small steps, Fredrickson said, that could account for big change over time.

“That’s the goal now. Maybe it will be grander down the line,” Fredrickson said.

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